This gatehouse, with the domestic wing to one side of it, is all that remains of Cawood Castle, once a stronghold of the Archbishops of York. It stands in the flat land south of York in the small town of Cawood, where there is a bridge over the Ouse. By the fifteenth century, when Archbishop Kempe built our richly decorated gatehouse with two well-proportioned rooms one over the other, it had become less of a castle and more of a palace; his Cardinal’s hat, of which he was proud, appears on several of the finely carved stone shields over the archway.

Another cardinal to stay here, just once, was Thomas Wolsey: it was here that he was arrested and turned back to the South where he died soon after. Other visitors include Henry III, Edward I and Queen Margaret, Queen Isabella, and Henry VIII and Queen Catherine (Howard) – not all together, of course.

After the Civil War, Cawood was partially dismantled. In the eighteenth century the gatehouse was used as a courtroom and a respectable Georgian staircase was built to supplement the medieval spiral stair.

It was difficult to save these most historic remains because they were divided between two owners; the domestic wing, long used as a barn, was hidden by derelict farm buildings; and part of the gatehouse was in the adjoining dwelling. The first floor room, with handsome bay windows at each end, in fact contained a full-size billiard table (how ever did it get there?) manfully supporting, during all our long negotiations, a huge pile of debris from the collapsed floor above.

In the end our neighbour allowed us to truncate his house a little, and we bought and demolished the farm buildings – so that our visitors can now experience and occupy a late medieval room of the finest quality; and in it, if they like, read some history on the spot where it was made.

Sleeps: 2+2